Category Archives: Creative Process

One thing that I’ve had to deal with a TON lately is a certain type of person who so completely believes that when they state their opinion, they need to state it over and over again, as loudly as possible, in as many places as possible. On first glance it seems like they just want to make sure they’re being heard, but when you get deeper into it, that’s not the case at all. In fact, usually they start this behavior only after they know for sure their feedback HAS been heard. The behavior, in fact, comes from not liking that their feedback was not agreed with, and/or not acted on, and that somehow, becoming louder and overall more aggressive about that feedback somehow makes it better. In this post I want to discuss the ways that this does the exact opposite, and makes the feedback less credible and reliable, and ultimately less likely to be used to make changes, for better or worse.

So here are the ways, in my experience, that louder actually makes your feedback worse, not better.

1) When responding to the community, either in every day business practices, or in a playtesting setting, the goal is to get as many unbias opinions as possible. No matter how loud or persistent a person decides to be, their opinion is still ONE data point, in a sea of 1000’s.

2) When someone is terribly loud, they actually corrupt my ability to get unbias data points, and as such I actually have to adjust my data analysis away from their point to compensate for the effect they might have on the online community giving feedback. This makes my job harder. And since the online community is at most 10% of our total audience, and my efforts are for the entire audience, the more my sample is corrupted by a single voice who decides to get loud about their opinion, the less reliable it is. This makes it harder to use any feedback from this sample to improve the final product. It is very obvious that the person is trying to make change by rallying support for their ideas, and get a majority of people to support them, but they are still only doing this within the tiny sample, and no matter what the results of their effort, all they are doing is corrupting my sample and my ability to get an accurate sample of the entire audience.

3) Usually the person being loud IS a tiny minority of the feedback received. Somehow this never gets through to them, that just because they feel REALLY strongly about something, it doesn’t mean that very many people agree with them. Trust me, when I get a majority of people pushing for a change in a certain way, the change is made. When I get particularly compelling feedback for change in a certain way, it’s made. Loud accomplishes neither of those things. (but remember those two criteria for change, since they’re relevant throughout this whole post)

4) When someone is so completely sure of their point of view that they are willing to become a spectacle in order to hero their point of view, it actually gives me less confidence in that opinion. More times than not it reflects an emotional connection to their opinion, not an intellectual connection. Of course they will use any intellectual rationale for why they are so undeniably right, but that doesn’t change the fact that ultimately they’re so vehemently behind their opinion because they’re emotionally attached to it. And while I feel for the person and the emotional distress they may be in, this again does not achieve a particularly compelling reason for me to make a change, since again, it’s one data point, and the way in which it’s delivered shows me that it’s an emotionally bias data point. Because of the bias, it’s hard to find the arguments for the change particularly compelling. (notice how again the delivery basically sabotages the chance of the message being acted on.)

5) More often than not, in order to be loud, the person being loud uses over the top rhetoric to make their point (actually, being loud itself could be seen as rather extreme rhetoric). When someone tells me that “everyone” they’ve spoken with agrees with them and will quit the game unless they get their way, it’s so obviously a complete lie. When someone tells me the game is COMPLETELY ruined unless I make their changes, when the majority of feedback I am getting tells me the opposite, it’s hard to take them seriously. Basically when someone is willing to lie, speak in absolute terms, or set up ridiculous straw men to tear down, I’m not likely to take their message seriously, because this is not the way to present a compelling argument to me. I’ve been in enough arguments, and actually smart enough to recognize the difference between rhetoric and well thought out and presented arguments, and I am not going to be bullied or pressured by extreme rhetoric. In fact, I think it would be safe to say, that in general, the more extreme the rhetoric, the less valid is the point being made, and in fact the rhetoric very often covers for the weakness in the actual message (or reflects emotional attachment to that message – see #4). This is another way that getting extremely loud or any form of extreme rhetoric actually only serves to undermine the message, because it basically reflects a weakness in the message itself.

6) The people being loud are potentially from a group that I like to call “that guy.” In this article I discuss the ways in which, if they had their way, games would be made worse. Therefor I will not be making the changes they are being super loud about, because I disagree with them. Someone who decides to be super loud, is often a “that guy” red flag.

7) Someone who is loud is actually changing the subject from discussing the game, to one of a potential PR issue. Because the person in question isn’t getting their way, they essentially threaten the company with a PR headache with their loud behavior in order to somehow get their way. This does the exact opposite. Re-framing the discussion in this way makes it so as a company we have to focus on dealing with the consequences of your actions and your behavior, and the message you’re actually trying to yell about gets pushed aside. We are forced to act against the behavior, and not the message, and in fact the message frequently gets lost.

7a) One of the most frustrating things when being forced to act against bad behavior, is that the person claims that somehow we act because we’re “afraid” to hear, or deal with, their message. It happens over and over again. It happened last week in the forums when someone with completely inappropriate behavior was removed ONLY for that behavior, and in fact we had heard the message already, and all their behavior was doing was getting in the way of their message and making the forums an unfun place for everyone else.

8) People often get loud about something that is already done! Yelling over and over again about something that is done will not change it. In fact we can’t change it because it’s done. Perhaps a change can be made in the future…but in order to get there takes time, and time can not be sped up by being loud.

9) I’m human. Being a dick to me, actually will make me like you less and be less likely to take your feedback seriously. It’s a natural reaction that everyone has. Don’t try to claim otherwise. 😛

10) There may be reasons that the person being loud has NO idea about, that their feedback is not being taken. Being loud isn’t help anything.

10a) I think 10 points is enough, how about we finish this up with a fun subpoint. One of the things that was loudly brought to our attention was that certain people didn’t like upgrades in Malifaux 2E, for various reasons. And yes, we heard you, I promise, and it’s pretty obvious that we didn’t remove upgrades due to that feedback. I like them, a the vast majority of people I’ve spoken with and gotten feedback from like them. But while we’re discussing it, look at some of the things that upgrades might allow us to do. This gives us is system where there is a relatively standard base model with a set number of abilities, and abilities beyond that are granted with upgrades. Models are no longer just an arbitrary set of stats with an arbitrary number of abilities. Giving this a system creates a blueprint that helps with balance, but more importantly creates meaningful constraints in character building, which allows a few things to happen, including some degree of crossover with RPG characters, allowing a system for campaign development, allowing a system for cooperative play options. So yes, sometimes there are things happening behind the scene. (No promises though!! 😉 )

I think that addresses most of the issues, happy to hear your feedback on any of all of these!

Eric

PS. Yes, I will follow up this post with one in the future about the best ways to compel change.

Ryle is the brother of C. Hoffman, who, upon crossing the Breach, nearly dies from the experience. Ryle only survives due to his brother’s ability (with the help of a few Archanists) to reconstruct his body with machine parts. What remains is a man disconnected from the world, who never fully accepts or adapts to being more machine than human. This leads to numerous physiological issues that manifest themselves in his story and rules.

Ryle is named after British philosopher Gilbert Ryle. Gilbert Ryle wrote at length about the concept of a mind/body disconnect and in fact created the now popularized phrase “the ghost in the machine”. For him however, the machine was not literally mechanical, but rather the human machine. The “mind” was this ghost that didn’t quite fit, and regardless of what a person did, the mind remained in many ways separate from the body it inhabited.

Ryle is in all ways the personification of the theories created by Gilbert Ryle but takes on a much more literal form. Take a spin on Wikipedia through the concepts and links presented in the article for Gilbert Ryle, and you’ll find the inspiration for nearly every one of Ryle’s characteristics such as, but not limited to, “can’t connect” and “lack of empathy” (as well as quite a bit about Hoffman too). I suggest reading up on “category mistakes” while you’re at it!

Normally, only a select few people are invited into the shower with me, but today, everyone gets to come. And you’re welcome to stay however long you’d like. I do! (trust me, I don’t rush)

If you’re anything like me, the world is excellent at providing non-stop distractions. It’s constantly yelling in my ear. “Watch out for that car!” “Remember to eat!” “Work work work!” “TV is fun, watch it, don’t think about anything else, quick break to buy things!!!! just relax and watch (or buy)” “Pay constant attention to the kidlet or she will single out the most important breakable thing in your life and play with it.” You know, stuff like that. It’s pretty much non-stop from leaving bed until crawling back in.

The one exception to these distractions is SHOWER TIME!! Shower time is that wonderful time when as much as you might want, you can’t do work, you can’t take care of kids, you’re likely not to get run over by cars. Shower time is special and unique in my day, so I take it seriously, and you should too. It can change your life (literally!).

When I step into the shower, I let go of the rest of the world, clear my head and take a minute or two just thinking about the wonderful warm water. I do not rush and pull out soap and washcloths and shampoo and all that, there’s no hurry. That’s the First rule – take it slow. Fully embrace shower time, and most of all, DO NOT think about what you need to do once you get out of the shower. If you do, just wash up and leave, there is no place for you in my shower. Really! Scoot!

Now that I’m nice and warm, and the hot water is massaging the back of my neck, I let my mind wander. I don’t tell it where to go since my conscious priorities are probably completely wrong anyway. My mind goes where it wants, and usually settles on the most interesting parts of my life. Since I’m a person who likes challenges (I do try to make a living making games after all!), usually that’s where my mind goes. It finds the most tangled, complex knot of reality that I need to unravel in some innovative and likely subconscious way. Second rule – relax and let your thoughts flow.

Then I lose track of time. My mind is where is should be, it’s dealing with the really interesting things now that I’ve gotten all of those boring real life distractions out of the way. So I don’t let those “important” things make their way back in. Be careful, because those things are incredibly good at doing just that, so it takes practice.

At some point, my arm reaches for the soap and I do a little washing. No reason to fight the reflex, it has to happen eventually I suppose. It won’t get in the way, it doesn’t take a whole lot of thought. Besides, one key point of the shower is the smelling pretty in the end part. (I think there are certain people who discount how really important this is.) Third rule – do the cleaning thing.

Sadly the shower must end, as all good things tend to do. However, if it was really a good shower, I’m walking out of there with some good progress made! Progress figuring out just what is really important to me. Progress untangling the most exciting and interesting tangles in my life. Progress thinking up the next great game mechanic. Who knows what progress will be made, but if I do it right, that progress is probably more important than the 8 hours of work I’m about to do! And almost certainly more important than the driving, cooking, cleaning, spider shooshing, dog feeding, and all those other daily chores in life that jump around in the front of your head screaming “I’m important, think about me!!!”

In fact, I can safely say that nearly everything important that I’ve created since I learned to take my showers seriously, has started in the shower. I remember the shower I came up with cheating fate in Malifaux. I remember the shower where I invented Collette. I sure as hell remember that shower when I realized I was completely in love with the woman I was going to marry. Needless to say, when done right, showers will change your life. It has changed mine in so many amazing ways.

So, now that you’ve spent 10 minutes in the shower with me, GET OUT. Go find your own, they’ll be way more useful to you than mine. Enjoy!

Just one more note. Fourth rule – write it down. You don’t want to forget all that brilliance that the world is waiting for.

Ulix is a Gremlin master that will be a part of Malifaux’s second edition. He’s all about pigs, rides them, herds them, hunts them, and fills his crew with them. He also has a few characteristics like a pig herding dog, he walks with a limp, and carries hunting tools. Totally on theme for Gremlins and fits right in! Right? What more needs to be said?

Well, the inspiration for Ulix comes from much more noble source. The name is derived from Ulixes, which is a variation of the name Ulysses/Odysseus in mythology. Odysseus kept herds of pigs on his island, both domestic and wild. He hunted them frequently with the companionship of his dog, trained for that task. During one hunting trip, he was gored in the leg and always walked with a slight limp due to that wound. He was well trained in all the tools needed to hunt pigs effectively – bow, spear, bola. He had a very “Gremlin” side to him! I think as you learn more about Ulix you’ll see more parallels as well.

Basically, if you take Odysseus, remove his epic tales, stick him in a swamp, shrink him a bit, and paint him green, you have your new Gremlin master! This was one of my favorite adaptations/inspirations for Malifaux 2e, and I’ll always think of Ulix as a little Odysseus with his pigs.